Shoshone Can’t Legally Leave Scott Well Enough Alone

In a National Forest where oil and gas development has been absent for 20 years, the specter of a new exploratory well has raised eyebrows. In the Shoshone, at the end of Burnt Creek Road about ten miles north of Dubois, WY, and within eyeshot of the Ramshorn, a project called Scott Well #2 could be the vector for a dramatically different landscape. Some NOLS courses have the potential to travel within three to five miles of the site for the majority of their trips, and the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Department is taking an interest in the proposed action.Interest in the site began in 1999, when Hudson Group, LLC, filed an Application for Permit to Drill. A miscommunication between the company and the Forest Service delayed action for a decade. As federal action is required on an APD, the Shoshone is picking up that lost thread, and is considering using a Categorical Exclusion to approve the permit, potentially bypassing any opportunity for an updated environmental analysis. To qualify for a Categorical Exclusion, drilling plans must propose less than one mile of new road construction and one mile of reconstruction, less than three miles of pipeline, and less than 4 drill sites. While this project meets those specific criteria, the appropriateness of using Categorical Exclusions in general have recently been called into question. In fact, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office said that the previous administration often was out of compliance in its use of this option.

The Shoshone National Forest is accepting public comments on this proposed action, and the deadline has recently been extended to February 8th, 2010. If you would like to express your opinion about this development, now is the time. You may submit comments on this project in writing by emailing Rick Metzger at [email protected]. Please include “Scott Well #2” in the subject line and use Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, or plain text format.

Photo by Allison Jackson